I have done some comparison work on Veeco Instruments (VECO) and Cree (CREE) (two leading LED plays). While CREE is great, the results suggest VECO has a LOT more upside potential from here.

• CREE has a market cap of $4.6 billion. This is 5x the June 2011 revenue estimate of $910 million. Revenue is expected to grow 22% next year. The June 2011 EPS estimate is $1.43…so the stock is trading at 31x earnings.
• VECO has a market cap of $800 million. This is just 1.5x the revenue estimate for next year (compared to 5x revenues for CREE). Revenues are expected to grow 45% next year (far higher than the 22% for CREE). If VECO were to trade at 5x revenues like CREE…the stock would be $80 per share. VECO EPS are expected to be $1.25 next year, so the PE is 19.6. If VECO were to trade at the same PE as CREE…the stock would trade at $39 (+60% from here).
• Comparing the valuations of CREE and VECO gives me a potential upside target for VECO of $50 next year…maybe more if they continue to beat estimates by such a wide margin.

Disclosure: Long VECO.

By Michael Kenellos

Wal-Mart (WMT), the mega-retailer that helped put energy consumption on the agenda for corporate executives, said it will use light emitting diode lights from Cree (CREE) in new stores and retrofitted ones. In the first year, that will come to 650 stores alone.

What a crazy month we had!

The Dow began the month of October at 9,712 and finished the month of October at EXACTLY 9,712. Now I don’t want to say the market is manipulated but… No, I’ve got nothing, there are no buts - the market is totally manipulated! Either that or you believe that the random outcome of tens of millions of traders around the globe trading hundreds of billions of shares of stock would just so happen to begin and end the month within .50 after going as low as 9,378.77 (on the 5th) and as high as 10,157.94 (on the 21st). So that is literally a 1 out of the 779-point swing coincidence to hit that 9,712 nail on the head.

Green energy experts accept that solar panels are one of the least cost effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint. Nevertheless, many buy solar stocks. They should rethink their investment strategies.

I recently spoke on "Stock Selection in the Era of Peak Oil and Climate Change" at the ASPO 2009 International Peak Oil Conference. Whenever green energy enthusiasts find out that I analyze green energy stocks professionally, they react in one of two ways. Many want to know my top stock pick in general (New Flyer Industries NFI-UN.TO/NFYIF.PK) or in their favorite sector (see below). Others tell me about their own green energy investments.

• King: Break up the banks! Bank of England Governor Mervyn King stepped up his call to break apart Britain's largest banks, saying more stringent capital requirements won't shield taxpayers from having to bail out more too-big-to-fail banks in the future. "The massive support extended to the banking sector around the world, while necessary to avert economic disaster, has created possibly the biggest moral hazard in history," King said in a speech (.pdf) late Tuesday. His comments were at odds with those of Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, who said yesterday focusing on capital rules may be enough to ward off future crises. Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, Paul Volcker keeps pounding the desk to split up banks, but no one's listening.
• State Street slapped with fraud suit. The California AG's office charged State Street (STT) with fraud Tuesday, accusing it of bilking the state's two largest pension funds - Calpers and Calstrs - of $57M, and seeking $200M in overcharges and penalties (complaint (.pdf)). The lawsuit stems from an inquiry launched after a whistleblower claimed State Street secretly and substantially marked up the price of its currency trades. State Street beat Q3 earnings estimates Tuesday, but shares dived 8.4% on news of the lawsuit and a sobering outlook.
• Yahoo defies bears. Shares of Yahoo (YHOO) are up 4.6% premarket after the internet giant beat Q3 earnings estimates handily with the help of some serious cost cutting ($0.13/share vs. $0.06), while revenue was steady from last quarter at $1.13B. "There's a change occurring in Yahoo," CFO Tim Morse said on Yahoo's earnings call (transcript), "that will value that kind of work - that good old-fashioned, get-your-hands-dirty kind of find ways to take costs down or make sure that they don't go up as much as they otherwise would have - type work." Analysts were impressed with the quarter, but said the real test of Yahoo's massive branding initiative would come in Q4. Bernstein's Jeffrey Lindsay summed it up: "The patient is off life support and back in the recovery ward. But it is certainly not out playing soccer again."
• Shedding light on the dark pools. In an effort to bring transparency to famously opaque "dark pool" off-exchange trading cliques on which Wall Street firms execute some of their largest trades, the SEC will reportedly today propose slashing the percent of daily volume in a company's shares that can be executed on the systems before quotes must be publicized to 0.25% from 5%. The move would force dark pools to either bring their prices in line with open markets, or risk losing their order flow. Trading executives warn sweeping rule changes could ultimately hurt the investors regulators are trying to empower.
• AT&T sues LCD makers over price fixing. AT&T (T) sued Samsung Electronics, LG Display (LPL), AU Optronics (AUO) Corp. and other LCD manufacturers, claiming they colluded to fix prices of panels sold in the U.S. "The conspiracy included communications and meetings in which defendants agreed to eliminate competition and fix the prices of LCD panels that were ultimately incorporated into LCD products that they knew would be sold in California and the U.S.," according to the complaint.
• Logi offer: does it make sense? An obscure hedge fund - logi Energy - said it offered to buy $1B of CIT Group's (CIT) debt, but wouldn't identify its source of capital. Logi said the deal could give CIT "wiggle room" as it works to sidestep bankruptcy. CIT wouldn't comment on whether it was seriously considering the offer.
• Volvo sale hits snag. Sources say China carmaker Geely's $2B attempt to buy Ford's (F) Volvo unit is in danger of stalling over disagreements about intellectual property rights. The impasse centers on Ford's concerns about sharing its proprietary technology and plans for new products.
• Morgan mulls giving away Crescent. Sources say Morgan Stanley (MS) may hand over its Crescent Real Estate Equities unit to Barclays (BCS), to whom the business owes $2B which comes due Nov. 2. Morgan bought Crescent for $6.5B in August 2007, and had planned to put its assets into real estate investment funds, but was left holding the bag when markets seized up.
• IRS watchdog says homebuyer plan fraught with fraud. The IRS's internal watchdog will warn the agency again about fraud in the multibillion dollar homebuyer tax credit program. The IRS faces significant challenges in preventing individuals from scamming the tax credit program.
• JPMorgan, Goldman cornering the M&A market. According to a study by Bloomberg News, JPMorgan (JPM) edged out Goldman Sachs (GS) in M&A advisory fees ($1.26B vs. $1.22B) for the first time since 2000. By deepening relationships with corporate clients, the two have created a deep moat around M&A counselling. "It's going to be very difficult for upstart or broad-based firms to come in and usurp what many believe are the insurmountable leads that Goldman and JPMorgan have over competitors," one analyst says.
• Business spending perks up. Industrial bellwether Caterpillar (CAT) joined the ranks of those who say the worst is behind us, as corporate buyers slowly begin reinvesting in their businesses. While Caterpillar's sales were 44% lower than a year ago, CFO David Burritt said he sees "encouraging signs that indicate a recovery may be under way," and predicted sales could rise 10-25% next year (read Caterpillar's Q3 earnings call transcript). Business spending accounts for about 9.5% of U.S. GDP - a fraction of the 68.2% accounted for by consumer spending - but still a potential catalyst for recovery.
• Get ready for pay as you play internet. Internet service providers including AT&T (T) and Time Warner Cable (TWC) are considering returning to usage-based pricing for internet, amid a surge in traffic as more people watch videos online, and after a push by the FCC to force ISPs to treat all web traffic equally. "Some type of usage-based model, for those customers who have abnormally high usage patterns, seems inevitable," an AT&T spokesman said, declining to provide details on the company's exact plans.

Earnings: Wed. Before Open

• Air Products and Chemicals (APD): FQ4 EPS of $1.14 beats by $0.02. Revenue of $2.13B (-21.6%) in-line. (PR)
• AirTran (AAI): Q3 EPS of $0.08 in-line. Revenue of $597M (-11.3%) vs. $600M. Shares -0.9% premarket. (PR)
• Allegheny Technologies (ATI): Q3 EPS of $0.01 misses by $0.02. Revenue of $698M (-49.9%) vs. $738M. Says the worst appears to be behind us, but many customers remain cautious due to the uncertain global economy and are keeping inventories low. Shares -8.8% premarket. (PR)
• Altria (MO): Q3 EPS of $0.48 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $4.32B (+0%) vs. $4.66B. Shares -1.4% premarket. (PR)
• Boeing (BA): Q3 EPS of -$2.23 misses by $0.11. Revenue of $16.69B (+9.1%) vs. $17.16B. Sees full-year EPS of $1.35-1.55 vs. $1.54 consensus. "The 787 cost reclassification and the 747 charge for increased costs and difficult market conditions clearly overshadowed what continues to be otherwise solid performance across our commercial production programs and defense business, We look forward to getting the 787 and 747-8 in the air soon and moving forward with flight test and certification for these two important programs." Shares -2.5% premarket. (PR)
• Deutsche Bank (DB): Q3 net income of €1.4B vs. consensus of €811M and last year's €435M. Pretax profit of €1.3B vs. consensus of €1.19B. Tier 1 capital ratio rose to 11.7% from 11% in Q2. Shares -2.3% premarket. (Bloomberg)
• Continental (CAL): Q3 EPS of $0.02 beats by $0.08. Revenue of $3.32B (-20.2%) in-line. (PR)
• Elan (ELN): Q3 EPS of -$0.06 beats by $0.07. Revenue of $399M (-19.5%) vs. $382M. (PR)
• Eli Lilly (LLY): Q3 EPS of $1.20 beats by $0.18. Revenue of $5.56B (+6.8%) vs. $5.41B. Gross margin as a percent of total revenue increased by 3.7% to 81.1%. Shares +0.4% premarket. (PR)
• FLIR Systems (FLIR): Q3 EPS of $0.38 beats by $0.03. Revenue of $286M (+3.2%) vs. $281M. Shares +2.9% premarket. (PR)
• Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold(FCX): Q3 EPS of $2.07 beats by $0.73. Revenue of $4.14B (-10.2%) vs. $4.24B. Reinstates dividend due to strong performance. Shares -0.1% premarket. (PR)
• KeyCorp (KEY): Q3 EPS of -$0.50 misses by $0.09. Takes a $733M provision for loan losses, which KEY says drove the miss. Average deposits were +6% (+$3.6B). Shares -4.7% premarket. (PR)
• Knight Capital Group (NITE): Q3 EPS of $0.32 misses by $0.07. Revenue of $300M (+24.5%) vs. $282M. Shares -6.4% premarket. (PR)
• Manpower (MAN): Q3 EPS of $0.26 beats by $0.09. Revenue of $4.19B (-26%) vs. $3.95B. Sees Q4 EPS of $0.17-0.27 vs. $0.28. "We continued to experience sluggish demand for our services as the labor markets throughout the world were hampered by lack of demand for companies' products and services... the uptick in revenue is muted at this time compared to previous recoveries." Shares -5.3% premarket. (PR)
• Morgan Stanley (MS): Q3 EPS of $0.38 beats by $0.11. Revenue of $8.7B vs. $6.99B. Assets under management $386B vs. $483B last year. Declares $0.05 quarterly dividend. Shares +0.9% premarket. (PR)
• Northern Trust (NTRS): Q3 EPS of $0.72 misses by $0.12. Revenue of $928M (-1.2%) vs. $985M. Shares -5% premarket. (PR)
• Northrop Grumman (NOC): Q3 EPS of $1.29 beats by $0.11. Revenue of $8.73B (+4.1%) vs. $8.58B. (PR)
• Omnicom Group (OMC): Q3 EPS of $0.53 in-line. Revenue of $2.83B (-14.4%) in-line. (PR)
• Penn National Gaming (PENN): Q3 EPS of $0.33 misses by $0.02. Revenue of $620M (+0.4%) vs. $642M. Shares -8.2% premarket. (PR)
• St. Jude Medical (STJ): Q3 EPS of $0.59 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $1.16B (+7%) in-line. Sees Q$ EPS of $0.61-0.63 vs. $0.66. "We are lowering our expectations for our fourth quarter results to accommodate the issues we are experiencing from a limited portion of our customer base in the U.S., but we are confident that our long term growth program is on track." Shares -0.9% premarket. (PR)
• U.S. Bancorp (USB): Q3 EPS of $0.30 beats by $0.03. Revenue of $4.25B (+2.2%) vs. $4.12B. Says credit deterioration moderated somewhat. Shares +0.8% premarket. (PR)
• Wells Fargo (WFC): Q3 EPS of $0.56 beats by $0.19. Revenue of $22.47B (+116.5%) vs. $21.63B. Q3 chargeoffs of $5.1B, up from $4.4B in Q2. Sees credit losses peaking in 2010, "with consumer losses potentially peaking in first half of the year and gradually declining, absent further economic deterioration." Shares -1% premarket. (PR)

Earnings: Tue. After Close

• Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN): Q3 EPS of -$0.19 beats by $0.10. Revenue of $211M (-3%) vs. $219M. Shares -1.1% AH. (PR)
• Canadian National Railway Company (CNI): Q3 EPS of C$0.94. Revenue of C$1.85B (-18%) in-line. Shares -1.6% AH. (PR)
• C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW): Q3 EPS of $0.57 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $1.95B (-16%) vs. $1.96B. Shares -0.8% AH. (PR)
• Cree (CREE): FQ1 EPS of $0.30 beats by $0.08. Revenue of $169M (+20%) vs. $165M. Sees Q2 EPS of $0.28-0.30 vs. $0.23 and revenue of $180M-190M vs. $173M. Shares +3.6% AH. (PR)
• Gilead Sciences (GILD): Q3 EPS of $0.78 beats by $0.11. Revenue of $1.8B (+31%) vs. $1.75B. Shares -2.2% AH. (PR)
• Infinera (INFN): Q3 EPS of -$0.03 beats by $0.09. Revenue of $83M (+3%) vs. $80M. Shares +2.5% AH. (PR)
• Intuitive Surgical (ISRG): Q3 EPS of $1.64 beats by $0.16. Revenue of $280M (+19%) vs. $258M. Shares -5.9% AH. (PR)
• Nabors Industries (NBR): Q3 EPS of $0.18 beats by $0.02. Revenue of $804M (-44%) vs. $820M. Shares flat AH. (PR)
• Polycom (PLCM): Q3 EPS of $0.31 misses by $0.01. Revenue of $243M (-16%) vs. $236M. Shares -5.2% AH. (PR)
• SanDisk (SNDK): Q3 EPS of $0.75 beats by $0.49. Revenue of $935M (+14%) vs. $788M. Shares +0.2% AH and halted. Updated 4:30 p.m.: Shares resume trading, +10.2% AH. (PR)
• Seagate Technology (STX): FQ1 EPS of $0.58 beats by $0.11. Revenue of $2.66B (-12%) vs. $2.62B. Shares -2.9% AH. (PR)
• SLM Corp. (SLM): Q3 EPS of $0.26 beats by $0.22. Net interest income after provision for loan losses of $204M (-29%). Shares +7.8% AH. (PR)
• STMicroelectronics (STM): Q3 EPS of -$0.23 misses by $0.14. Revenue of $2.28B (-16%) vs. $2.25B. Shares +3.7% AH. (PR)
• Stryker (SYK): Q3 EPS of $0.69 in-line. Revenue of $1.65B (+1%) vs. $1.62B. Shares +3.5% AH. (PR)
• Tupperware (TUP): Q3 EPS of $0.54 beats by $0.12. Revenue of $514M (flat) vs. $486M. Raises full-year EPS guidance to $2.84-2.89 from $2.59-2.64, vs. $2.73. Shares +4.5% AH. (PR)
• Walter Industries (WLT): Q3 EPS of $0.45 beats by $0.18. Revenue of $278M (-10%) vs. $223M. Shares +1.7% AH. (PR)

Today's Markets

Overseas markets sustained losses Wednesday. U.S. futures moved lower overnight.

F1Q10 (Qtr End 09/27/09) Earnings Call Transcript

October 20, 2009 5:00 pm ET

We asked a simple question: If you had to own only 1 stock for the next 5 years, what would it be? Since many of the hedge funds we track on the blog are centered around stockpicking, we thought it would be fun to see what readers had in mind for long-term picks of their own.

As you can imagine, we received the full gamut in terms of answers but definitely noticed a few themes in the responses. Firstly, when it comes to 'buy and hold,' blue chip stocks are the name of the game. By far and away, the largest amount of entries centered around well established blue chip companies that have a proven brand and often pay a dividend. Secondly, two sectors received the most votes and those were: technology and energy. Readers definitely see those two arenas as areas of long-term growth and sustainability it seems.

1. Large-cap tech moves to fresh 52-week highs: One of the most impressive aspects to last week’s action were the moves in large-cap tech names such as AAPL, AMZN, BIDU, CRM, EBAY, GOOG, IBM and SY. With these tech bellwethers rising to fresh 52-week highs, on massive volume, we are looking for further institutional inflows to these names. This should create a herd-like mentality around this group going into year-end.

Yesterday, we looked at the best performing S&P 500 stocks since the index's all-time closing high on 10/9/07. This morning we highlight the 25 best performing stocks in the S&P 400 (mid cap) and S&P 600 (small cap) indices. As we saw yesterday with the S&P 500, sectors dominating both lists come from the Consumer Discretionary, Health Care, and Technology sectors. While the presence of tech stocks on these tables is not surprising, given the weak consumer and prospects for nationalized health care, it is surprising to see pockets of strength in the Consumer Discretionary and Health Care sectors.

For the first 9 months of 2009, my ten green energy stocks for 2009 are up 23.4% vs. the S&P 500, and up 20.4% over my clean energy benchmark, the iShares S&P Global Clean Energy Index (ICLN). For the third quarter, that amounts to a loss of 1% relative to the S&P 500, and a gain of 7% relative to ICLN.

In my second quarter update, I attributed the out-performance of both clean energy in general, and my picks to the Obama Effect. That is, green energy outperformed the market strongly in the first half of the year because of the strong political and financial support it received from the new administration and Congress.

The Algonquin Power Income Fund (AGQNF.PK) has been one of my star performers in an excellent year. Is it still a good investment at these prices?

Since I recommended the Algonquin Power Income Fund in January as a renewable energy income stock for 2009, the company is up 69%, in addition to the C$0.02 monthly dividend, worth approximately another 8% through August on the US$1.82 purchase price, making it the second-best performing of my ten picks (after Cree, Inc (CREE)). However, since the major basis for my recommendation at the time was the stock's extremely cheap valuation and high yield, I thought it was worth revisiting, on the occasion of the company's Q2 update [pdf].

4:10 PM, Sep 11, 2009 --

• NYSE down 6.98 (0.1%) to 6,843.83.
• DJIA down 22 (0.23%) to 9,605.
• S&P 500 down 1.41 (0.14%) to 1,043.
• Nasdaq down 3.12 (0.2%) to 2,081.

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

I previously wrote on a trend following study done by Blackstar Funds. Blackstar's article in full can be found on Scribd, here.

The system is fairly simple,

China Unicom (CHU), Apple (AAPL), Research in Motion (RIMM), Cypress Semiconductor (CY), Cree (CREE), Skyworks Semiconductor (SWKS), Xilinx (XLNX), United Technologies (UTX), Wynn Resorts (WYNN)

• Madoff CFO pleads guilty: "It was all fake." Frank DiPascali, who served as a 'key lieutenant' in Bernie Madoff's firm, pleaded guilty to ten charges of financial crimes including conspiracy, securities fraud, money laundering and perjury. DiPascali told the court he recorded fictitious trades for clients and lied to the SEC about the firm's activities under Madoff's instructions. Though his testimony shed some light on how the fraud was perpetrated, DiPascali declined to identify any accomplices other than Madoff. To date, only Madoff, DiPascali and the firm's outside accountant David Friehling have been charged in connection to the $50B fraud, though authorities are said to be investigating at least ten other people. (Read the SEC's charges against DiPascali)
• Parsing the productivity jump. A preliminary estimate of Q2 nonfarm productivity showed a strong 6.4% increase, compared to 5.5% consensus. Unit labor costs fell 5.8% compared to -2.5% consensus. The larger-than-expected fall in labor costs stemmed from the fact that hours worked fell 7.6% but output fell just 1.7%, indicating workers are either putting in more unpaid overtime or are being more productive in an effort to hold on to their jobs. Though that may not seem to be a basis for a sustainable recovery, it's historically how recessions have ended. Manufacturing sector productivity rose 5.3%, breaking a streak of four consecutive declines.
• Obama releases derivatives reform. The Obama administration released its derivatives reform proposal, which would split supervision of the $450T private swaps market between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and would require all standardized derivatives to trade on regulated exchanges. It also recommended federal supervision for over-the-counter [OTC] derivatives dealers and traders that take large positions in OTC swaps. (Read the White House's press release and reform proposal (.pdf))
• China arrests Rio employees. China formally arrested the four Rio Tinto (RTP) employees that have been detained since July 5, charging them with bribery and illegally obtaining trade secrets but holding back from the more serious charge of espionage. Despite the downgrade in the severity of the charges, the news is likely to further unsettle investors worried about Rio's future in China. Shares -3% premarket (7:00 ET).
• CIT drops on delayed earnings report. Shares of CIT Group (CIT) fell nearly 19% in trading yesterday after the company announced it will delay its Q2 earnings report, citing the 'unreasonable effort and expense' that would be required to meet its reporting deadline during its restructuring. Shares had rallied 116% last week as investors hoped a debt exchange deal would help CIT avoid bankruptcy, and the company still insists that bondholders aren't planning to push for a Chapter 11 filing. However, the news reawakened fears that the most likely outcome for CIT could be a prepackaged bankruptcy. (Read CIT's late filing notification to the SEC)
• BHP beats but profit falls. BHP Billiton (BHP) broke a six-year streak of record annual results, posting a 61.8% fall in full-year net profit to $5.9B because of a slump in commodity prices. However, the mining company's profit came in slightly ahead of expectations and cash flow was a record $18.9B. Revenue fell 16% to $50.2B. Despite a recent improvement in commodity prices, the company believes "the global economy is likely to emerge from this recession less rapidly than in previous cycles." Shares -0.8% premarket (7:00 ET).
• Taylor Bean prepares for Ch. 11. Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., the country's 12th-largest mortgage lender, is expected to file for bankruptcy shortly. In court papers filed last week, Taylor Bean said a 'bankruptcy filing is imminent' after it was forced to stop its mortgage lending operations on August 5. Bank of America (BAC) is taking over all Taylor Bean mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration.
• Bidders circle Guaranty Bank. Guaranty Bank (GFG), the major Texas lender on the verge of collapse, is drawing bidding interest from Blackstone Group (BX), Flexpoint and U.S. Bancorp (USB) as rising bank failures prompt potential acquirers to look for cheap assets. A Guaranty failure would be the largest since the September seizure of Washington Mutual.
• Lloyds sells assets to BNY Mellon. Lloyds Bank (LYG) plans to bring its asset management units together under its Scottish Widows brand and sell most of its Insight Investment Management Ltd. business to Bank of New York Mellon (BK) for £235M ($386M). The deal is expected to close in Q4. LYG +3.1% premarket (7:00 ET).
• MSFT brings Office to Nokia. Microsoft (MSFT) is expected to announce this morning that it's teaming up with Nokia (NOK) to make its Office suite of applications available on Nokia's phones. The move comes after Google's (GOOG) recent entrance into the software market with free online versions of word processing, calendar and e-mail applications.
• White House mulls change to clunker vouchers. As the success of cash-for-clunkers diminishes inventories of many popular, fuel-efficient clunker replacements, the White House is considering a congressional request to issue vouchers toward future vehicle purchases even when new models are unavailable or need to be ordered from the manufacturer. Under the current system, vouchers can only be used if a model is in stock. As of Tuesday morning, 292,447 vouchers had already been issued under the cash-for-clunkers program.
• Atticus shutters two funds. Activist hedge fund Atticus Capital closed down two of its funds, including its flagship Atticus Global, and returned $3B to investors. Founder Timothy Barakett said the move was because of personal reasons, and wasn't motivated by withdrawals. Atticus Global lost 25% in 2008 and is down another 6% this year. (Read Barakett's letter to investors)
• Mortgage apps fall. Mortgage applications fell 3.5% from last week, MBA reported. The average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 5.38% from 5.17%.
• Retail sales. Chain store sales fell 0.5% in the first week of August, Redbook said, slightly better than the -0.6% expected. According to ICSC, weekly sales were up 0.4% Y/Y and were flat compared to the previous week.

Earnings: Wednesday Before Open

• JA Solar (JASO): Q2 EPS of -$0.18 vs. consensus of -$0.06 (may not be comparable). Revenue of $88M (-51%) vs. $78M. (PR)
• Liz Claiborne (LIZ): Q2 EPS of -$0.48 misses by $0.08. Revenue of $684M (-29%) vs. $691M. (PR)

Earnings: Tuesday After Close

• Applied Materials (AMAT): FQ3 EPS of $0.00 beats by $0.08. Revenue of $1.13B (-39%) vs. $958M. (PR)
• Celadon Group (CLDN): FQ4 EPS of $0.01 misses by $0.02. Revenue of $117M (-24%) in-line. (PR)
• Clearwire (CLWR): Q2 EPS of -$0.38 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $64M (+9%) vs. $65M. Total subscribers up to 511,000 from year-ago 461,000. (PR)
• Cree (CREE): FQ4 EPS of $0.18 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $148M (+9%) vs. $146M. Sees Q1 EPS of $0.21-0.23 vs. $0.17. Sees Q1 revenue of $160M-166M vs. $151M. (PR)
• Systemax (SYX): Q2 EPS of $0.17 misses by $0.12. Revenue of $722M (-5%) vs. $771M. (PR)
• Warnaco Group (WRC): Q2 EPS of $0.48 in-line. Revenue of $456M (-9%) vs. $425M. Sees full-year revenue down 7-9% from year ago. (PR)
• WuXi PharmaTech (WX): Q2 EPS of $0.24 beats by $0.12. Revenue of $67M (-3%) vs. $64M. (PR)

Today's Markets

Asian markets closed down, China heavily so. Despite Asian jitters, European markets are trading up and U.S. futures are weakly positive.

F4Q09 Earnings Call

August 11, 2009 5:00 pm ET

By Charles Rotblut

Retailers will start to release second-quarter results this week, accounting for nearly 10% of the 246 scheduled reports. Dow component Wal-Mart (WMT) will be joined by 15 other members of the S&P 500, including J.C. Penney (JCP), Kohl's (KSS) and Macy's (M).

I started my "Clean Energy Shopping List" series on the premise that the market was near a peak, and it would be better to wait than to buy now. My market call turned out to be premature (or just plain wrong... time will tell) and the market has since advanced more than I thought it would. But I feel the challenges facing our economy and financial system are too grave not to bring down the market from its current heights eventually, so each rise simply makes me more bearish.

However, I feel the shopping list series is getting tired (or at least I'm getting tired of it), so I'm going to end it now, with just a list of stocks in the series and the articles that cover them. In addition, I'll throw in the few companies I've been thinking about using but have not made it in so far.